Mt Dare to Birdsville - How ?

The Track is called the French Line and is approximately 1100 sand dunes and 500 klms across The Simpson Desert. Go into the Trek Notes in this website and all your answers will be there. It is a very good report. From Birdsville you can go south straight down the Birdsville Track to Port August, Adelaide and to Melbourne with ease. Just a suggestion but if you only have four weeks - for Melbourne to Alice it may not be enough time, esepcially if you want to see something other than road. Most places don't look far on the map but spending 600 klms between stretches can be tiring. Give yourself plenty of time. Happy travelling.

Phil P,

My preferences are:
Old Andado Track is more interesting and a nicer drive than the Finke road. You run parallel to the Simpson dunes and can call in at the Mac Clarke Acacia Peuce Reserve. The shortcut from Andado station to Mt Dare is a nice drive too.

Across the Simpson, I'd go via dalhousie, Purnie and take the rig road to Mokari airstrip; the the WAA Line to the gum tree, then bit more rig road and turn north up Knolls Track, east to Poeppels, then QAA Line to Birdsville. This would give you a taste of everything. To only take the French Line can get a bit monotonous.

Find a good book that covers the history etc and it will make your trip much more interesting. I like Stuart Nicols book on outback SA and Central Australia which is published in Adelaide by the RAA. Might be available at your motoring organisation interstate. New edition came out in 2002.

After Birdsville, you might want to take the Walkers Crossing Track (now a public access route) to Innamincka and from Innamincka take the Bore Track to Bollards Lagoon, Cameron Corner, Tibooburra and then home to Melbourne.

Relax; don't rush the trip and you'll have a good time. Too many f our Victorian friends seem to hurry on the SA Outback Roads and it can cost them dearly in Tyres and mech repairs.

Cheers

Phil G

Thanks for the advice !